Preparing for the rest of my life!

As a final year student studying music at university, I am about to enter a new stage in my life that will inevitably involve searching for a job and therefore interviews.  Dreaded interviews.  In preparation for these anxiety inducing job interviews in the teaching profession, specifically music teaching, I have researched job advertisements and narrowed it down to four for the purpose of focusing my preparation and begin to predict some of the questions that would be asked.  In this post I will compare and contrast the four jobs based on what they have stated in their essential/ desirable criteria and outlay how I would answer potential questions.

Grasping the basics

As is typical for applying for jobs in a particular profession, much of the desirable/ essential criteria set out by employers is pretty consistent.  The skill that is emphasised in every job description as essential criterion, is behaviour and classroom management.  Some positions stress the need for this when teaching young people with SED and some emphasise that behaviour management policies are strictly laid out by management for you to follow.  What is very clear is that the ability to handle challenging behaviour in the correct way is paramount in these positions.

Another skill that all four job advertisements specify as essential criteria is experience in preparing students for exams and assignments and evidence of students succeeding or improving in these.  This was stated as essential experience in jobs in both school settings and instrumental teaching posts so obviously was a skill that I needed to prepare well thought out examples of in order to properly get across my experience.

Job advertisements all also specified the need for good organisational skills and preparation of resources for lessons.  This skill would go without specification when interviewing for a teaching job.

Learning the specifics

It was very interesting that only two of the jobs that I have focused when preparing specified the importance of pastoral care.  These two jobs were in a school setting, not as an instrumental teacher.  I found this very useful when preparing answers, knowing that talking about pastoral care was much more important when interviewing for a full-time role in one location rather than an instrumental teacher post that could be in a different school each day of the week.

Another skill that was only stated as an essential skill in one of the job posts was the ability to work closely within a team or department.  From looking at a wider range of jobs that were advertised for music teaching, it seemed that only very large schools were emphasising the need for teamwork.  From my own experience I can see how this would be the case as often times the music department is one of the smallest departments in the school with the least amount of staff.

Given the criteria laid out in the job advertisements and wider research about teaching interviews and what they entail, I was able to start predicting some of the questions that could be asked and thinking about how I would answer these questions in a way that would convey all of my relevant experience and qualities.  This all seemed like quite the task for someone who doesn’t find it very comfortable talking about themselves aka me! (And I’m sure most other people too).

Predicting the unpredictable

Although it is not possible to predict the exact questions that will be presented in an interview, I have picked a few that I feel that will allow me to prepare how I would want to articulate my answers for these general topics/ skills and included some further examples to conclude.

Question: One of these such questions, given how behaviour management is stated in every job advertisement, is “How would you handle a student who is constantly disruptive and defiant?” (Ward & Casella, 2019) or “Give an example of a time when a student was disruptive and how you manged that behaviour.”

Answer: I feel that in order to properly manage disruptive behaviour it is important to build a good relationship with students and to remain consistent in monitoring behaviour rather than ignoring it when it is inconvenient to address. That being said, rather than reprimand bad behaviour, praising good behaviour in other students can be equally as effective in my experience, particularly among younger pupils.  An example of a situation like this is in a lesson I was teaching that had an age range of 5-9 that had multiple sets of siblings who tended to aggravate and distract each other.  They were being very rowdy and hard to manage in order to continue with the content of the lesson as they would distract the rest of the pupils.  First, I split up the siblings to opposite sides of the room and then began praising the students who were paying attention and co-operating with the lesson.  After a short amount of time, the majority of the disruptive behaviour had stopped and the lesson continued as planned.

Another question that could be asked is “Give an example of when you had to work in a team and any challenges that this presented.”

Answer: I work as part of a teaching team for a fiddle association that also take a major part in running the association I have had extensive experience in working in a team environment where it is imperative that we all understand our roles and responsibilities. An example of this is when entering pupils for exams there is a member of staff responsible for each aspect of this. E.g. communicating the fees and dates with the parents, liaising with the exams office, handling the fees and ensuring all are paid in a timely manner, arranging a venue and date for the exams to take place and so on. Without each member of the team working together to complete their own tasks, the association would not be able to provide music exams for their pupils.

Further examples:

Describe the kinds of training you have had as a teacher, beyond formal degree programs. What were 2 important courses or workshops you have taken/attended, and what impact have they had on your teaching?

Describe a successful lesson you ran. Why was it successful?

How would you integrate technology into your lesson?

What are your weaknesses?

Bibliography

Bennett, T. (2012) Teacher : mastering the art and craft of teaching. Continuum. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat02616a&AN=qub.b18043409&site=eds-live&scope=site (Accessed: 10 February 2022).

Casella, S. and Ward, R., 2019. 11 Questions You’ll Be Asked at a Teaching Interview. [online] Edutopia. Available at: <https://www.edutopia.org/article/11-questions-youll-be-asked-teaching-interview> [Accessed 10 February 2022].

Ellis, R. T. (2015) Interview skills … from both sides of the fence. [publisher not identified] (Bite-size management development series). Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat02616a&AN=qub.b19216609&site=eds-live&scope=site (Accessed: 23 February 2022).

Hammel, AM, Hourigan, RM, & Hourigan, RM 2011, Teaching Music to Students with Special Needs : A Label-Free Approach, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, Cary. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [12 February 2022].

Jorgensen, ER 2008, The Art of Teaching Music, Indiana University Press, Bloomington. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [11 February 2022].

Wright, R., Younker, B. A. and Beynon, C. (2016) 21st century music education : informal learning and non-formal teaching approaches in school and community contexts. Canadian Music Educators’ Association (Research to practice: volume 7). Available at: https://search-ebscohost-com.queens.ezp1.qub.ac.uk/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat02616a&AN=qub.b20969399&site=eds-live&scope=site (Accessed: 11 February 2022).